Lincecum unfazed by arbitration process

GIANTS

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, February 6, 2010

San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum ponders a question during media day at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Friday.

San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum ponders a question during media day at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Friday.

Photo: Eric Risberg, AP

Lincecum unfazed by arbitration process

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For a guy who is supposed to be steaming mad at his employer, perhaps worried about being browbeaten in an arbitration room and weighed down by a very public pot bust this winter, Tim Lincecum looked like his usual Timmy self Friday.

His sense of humor is intact, as he laughed heartily at the absurdity of where he was storing his two Cy Young trophies at the moment: in the backseat of his car.

His hair is 3 inches shorter. He said he cut it before last month's baseball writers' banquet in New York because "it looked unhealthy."

Finally, his sense of proportion seems to be sound, at least publicly. Maybe Lincecum has sat home wondering if he should view the Giants' $8 million arbitration offer, or their disinclination to negotiate a long-term deal, as a lack of respect. However, on the eve of today's FanFest at AT&T Park, the Giants' franchise pitcher expressed no animosity.

"This is not a grudge match," he said. "Either way, I try not to have ill feelings about anything. My whole purpose is to help the team win.

"I think right now, as much as I'm trying to take in, I don't understand fully what's going on and what (the team's) approach is. I know the two Cy Youngs throw a curveball into the mix. Everybody's saying I can pretty much ask for anything up there with CC (Sabathia), and that isn't even the case. It's new to everybody, I feel, and it's new to me."

Only in pro sports can a team look villainous by offering a mere 12-fold salary increase, as the Giants did with Lincecum. He earned $650,000 last season.

They would argue their $8 million offer is nearly twice as much as any starting pitcher has earned in his first year of arbitration eligibility, the $4.35 million for Philly's Cole Hamels as part of a three-year deal they signed after he was World Series MVP.

Lincecum could counter that he fills the ballpark and should be compensated accordingly, even if the $13 million he seeks obliterates all records for players of his service class.

All these arguments could be aired in a hearing, to take place over the next two weeks, if the sides do not settle. And that could happen. The team continues to talk with Lincecum's agent, Rick Thurman, about potential one- or two-year deals.

Arbitration can be a nasty process in which team officials bad-mouth even their most prized players to win a ruling. Lincecum seems braced for anything.

"I'm just trying to keep an open mind," he said. "If anybody knows my flaws, I do. If they're going to put them out and that has to happen, whatever. I know I've got to get better."

The Giants even could raise Lincecum's marijuana-possession arrest in Washington state, which was reduced by plea agreement to an infraction. The 25-year-old sounds ready for that, too.

"I just know that's one thing I said I'd not let happen again," he said. "It's part of my past and I'm going to move on. I feel like I've made a step forward from it and I've become a better person for it.

"I've got to stop making stupid decisions. It's one of those things where it's time to grow up now."